White House adviser doesn’t see lasting impact from cold weather on economy

The icy weather shouldn’t keep the U.S. economy in the deep freeze for long, the White House’s top economic adviser said Tuesday.

Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was upbeat about the economic outlook, saying that consumers were in a relatively strong position to spend this year.

Once consumers started to spend more, business investment would likely pick up, he told reporters after a speech to the National Association for Business Economics.

Cold weather has impacted some economic data over the last few weeks and could impact the key February job report to be released on March 7, he said.

But the snow and ice shouldn’t have “a lasting impact” on the economy, he said.

The Obama White House plans to stick with its policy of not commenting on U.S. central bank policy, he added. “The economy has been well-served by the administration not commenting, by the Fed undertaking its actions independently, and by not introducing additional uncertainty with any form of dialogue about something that [are] actions the Fed takes independently from us,” Furman said.

The “no comment” approach harks back to the Rubin/Clinton/Greenspan era.